Crohn’s Disease, Leprosy and Thalidomide

Leprosy is caused a member of genus Mycobacteria, M. leprae, and some forms of leprosy are treated by “tamping down the immune system” with anti-TNF agents, such as thalidomide. Steroids are also used for the treatment of leprosy[1].

Remicade’s anti-TNF activity might also be useful for leprosy (a known mycobacterial disease), but there haven’t been any trials of remicade/infliximab for Leprosy (Hansen’s Disease), presumably because the manufacturers know that the average third-world leper can’t afford $30K+ a year to be maintained on remicade, and thus won’t spend the huge money necessary for the relevant clinical trials.

But Thalidomide, the poor man’s anti-TNF drug, is long out of patent, and is cheap, and so gets used for the poor lepers. But there is a fightback in the leprosy medical community, primarily because of the nasty birth defects that Thalidomide causes.

So the relative success of treatment of Crohn’s Disease with Remicade is NOT an argument against a mycobacterial cause. In fact, if the Crohn’s Disease to Leprosy analogy that has been made by some researchers[2,3] is true, then Remicade treatment in Crohn’s could be an argument FOR a mycobacterial cause.